


Forgotten

by tivaforever02 (Jevax2)



Category: NCIS, tiva - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25008073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevax2/pseuds/tivaforever02
Summary: Just more TIVA stuff.
Relationships: Ziva David/Anthony DiNozzo
Kudos: 4





	Forgotten

January 2003

Each breath hurt more than the one before. His hands were starting to shake. His legs had faltered twice and he had fallen very hard onto the ground. If it happened again he may not be able to get back up so he focused on just putting one foot in front of the other and staying upright. He reached his hands out to find trees he could lean upon for a moment or two of rest very few yards. 

The snow was blinding now. The few yards of visibility he had had only a few hours ago from the moon was completely gone. If he held his hand in front of his face he would not be able to make out his fingers. He tried to lighten his breaths hoping that could stem the burning in his chest but it did not work. While the bullet proof vest he had been wearing had saved his life the shots had been so close likely a few ribs were broken. His left arm was broken as well he was certain from one of his falls. The pain there though had subsided to a dull throbbing. The only bonus to the freezing cold wind from the Nor'easter that was assaulting him along with the snow was that it was numbing some of the pain. That his chest still hurt so bad was not a good sign for him surviving the night if he could not find Gibbs cabin soon. He just kept going. 

He had been walking for miles but still had no idea if he was getting any closer. He could be walking in circles for all he knew. He had been to the cabin a few times but had spent no times in the woods surrounding the property so the chance of him finding it were slim. The terrorists he encountered after he got lost on his way up there finding him and finishing off the task of killing him were actually much better.

He hoped they thought he was dead. He had ran quickly after the man who appeared the leader of the group had shot him point blank in the chest. Luckily Ari, as he heard the only woman in the group of four refer to him, was not expecting him to have been wearing a vest so he had not waited to make sure he was dead before turning back and telling the group to pack up and clear out. He took off as soon as their backs were turned and quickly lost himself in the brush of the forest. They had been very surprised when a lost Tony had stumble upon them on his way to Gibbs ice fishing “team building” event. He must have passed out shortly after escaping and when he came too he was alone, the sun was setting and the storm was just getting going. The few snippets of conversation he had managed to catch just let him know they were assassins and there was a target near they were intending to kill but Tony was too busy trying to avoid dying to try and figure out why they were there in the woods in the first place. If he survived the night he would concern himself with that issue. 

He stopped suddenly when he came upon what felt like the trunk of a tree fallen across the ground. His feet kicked at it a bit and as he reach up his foot to step over he realized it was not a tree. It was softer than tree would have been and much lower. The change in trajectory once his body had assumed it was a log to something smaller cause him to once again find himself falling towards the ground. 

Fuck not again, was all that came to his mind on the way down. He could not reach out his broken arm to protect himself so he tucked his right arm in close and tried to stabilize himself with his left. He failed miserably landed on what he quickly realized was a person. His left hand landing hard into what must have been their side or stomach.

“Umphhh.” Was the moan he heard confirming that. Why someone else also out here in the snow and the storm was beyond him.

Pain blinded him briefly. It shot up his arm and through his chest as he landed. His fall was slightly soften by the person he had landed in but not by much. He reached his hands out and felt a face and bulky jacket similar to his own. 

“I can’t kill him. I’m sorry I just can’t.”

“What?” Tony answered back at the female voice that spoke out to him. “Who can’t you kill.”

“I’m sorry. Ari. I’m so sorry.” She continued and then it was silent.

Tony waited to see if she would say anymore but nothing came. He struggled with his one working hand to take his glove off, finally shaking it strongly and flinging it to the side. His bare hand combed over her face and felt her breathing slowing. Her eyes were closed and her face was uncovered, feeling cold to the touch. She had been here a while he figured and knew if she stayed here like this she would likely soon be dead.

He moved his fingers to her neck and felt a weak but stable pulse. Knowing he could not go any further now he struggled to unzip his coat. He pulled her in beside him shielding her face from the wind and the snow. Once he had them blanketed the best he could he leaned his head down buried his head into her hair. The smell of lavender invaded briefly invaded his senses. It must be her shampoo he thought briefly before he gave in to the tired and the pain and passed out beside her.

_____

When he awoke hours later the snow covered him like a blanket. It had shelter him, or them he corrected himself when he realized the woman he had tripped over the nights before was still beneath him, from the worst of the wind and the cold of the storm. He lifted himself up as gently as he could with the pain in his arm and his chest still threatening to overwhelm him. If they wanted to stay alive they had to move. He could tell it was daylight now and while the storm had subsided some he could still hear the the wind blowing at a deadly pace above them. 

He braved himself slightly above her on his one good arm and shook himself to move as much of the snow off off them as he could. It took a few very painful shakes. Once the barrier was gone he could feel the wind cutting at his back. He could see well enough now to make out a mound of black curly hair covering her face. She had on a thicker winter coat but seemingly thin cargo pants. Snow still covered her feet and no toque or gloves. Not the outfit of someone who had expected to be outdoors in this weather long. His eyes jumped back to the pants and felt familiar to him. The female terrorist in the group he had encountered? She had been wearing cargo pants. He leaned over and attempted to blow the hair out of the way to see her face so he could be sure and but it was too thick. That she didn’t even flinch at the action was a bad sign he figured so he rolled back down on the ground and used his hand to feel for her pulse. He could not find one. His fingers felt the iciness of her skin.

That she was already dead rolled through his mind. His attempts to keep her warm through the night had been useless. If she was one of the terrorists then likely for the best maybe. He rolled further over into his back and stared up directly on to the wind and the snow. The pain of his injuries continued to beat at him and his breathes became more labored.

While his job at NCIS required him to deal with dead bodies and terrorists all the time this one was different. Before this one had died he had attempted to protect her and failed. If that didn’t make it personal enough she had whispered her last words to him. What was it she said? That she couldn’t do it, couldn’t kill him or something. And that she was sorry. That he remembered vividly. That was what clawed at him the longer he laid there. The pain in her voice, the sorrow. And now she was dead. He was getting tired of death. So very tired. How easy it would be to just stay right were he was. Stay on his back on the the ground until the pain stopped and he fell back asleep. Hypothermia would set in soon after that. It’s not like anyone would miss him and come looking for him soon. It would be at least until Monday am when he failed to show up for work that it would be noticed.

Nobody knew he had been coming up yesterday to meet the team. As usual in his typical Dinozzo fashion he had made fun of the event. That Gibbs was forced to do it as part of some new management initiative made it easy to sluff off. I’ve got too hot of a date to go ice fishing with you guys he had responded. Have a great time. Then when Saturday came, after the hot date fell through and he sat by himself in his apartment that had never seemed lonely before, watching a movie he had seen a hundred times, he decided that maybe he would show. Grace them with his presence. He had not bothered to take the map Gibbs had provided since he wasn’t going but he had been there before. How hard is it to find a cabin in the woods. No problem.

He missed the first turn off, or the second. He wasn’t even sure anymore but after two hours he was so lost in the backwoods he had given up trying to find them and was just trying to get back to the highway and home. The radio was already giving warnings of the unexpected rapidly moving storm, worst in a decade it predicted. His pride had been too strong to give in and call any of the team for help. A quick call to McGee when he first got lost and none of this would have happened. He would not have gotten the flat tire. He would not have decided he could walk for help (at least he was lucky enough to decide to put on the bullet proof vest he had in his car as an extra layer of protection from the cold). He would have not have found Ari and his crew plotting a killing, gotten shot at, lost his cell phone during his hasty escape, and most certainly he would not be laying beside a dead woman in the woods with a broken arm and broken ribs contemplating if it was worth getting back up.

Then the wind shifted 

And very shortly after his heart. 

Because as the gusts moved from south to west the trees then allowed it to come in lower and sweep between them. It cleared the remainder of the snow off of her and moved the hair from in front of her face. He turned his head slowly, almost wanting to hold off the confirmation that he would get that she was the terrorist and that she was dead. 

When he finally did he got that confirmation. It was her, the female he saw with the group of men in the woods. He had been far away but his eye sight good enough to recognize the white of her skin, the shape of her face. But up close he saw how beautiful she was. The shape of her lips. The curve of her nose. He got a pounding in his chest, an acceleration in his pulse. His stomach starting to flutter and he jerked back suddenly, never feeling such a strong physical reaction to just the sight of a woman. A dead woman at that. He flexed his bad shoulder in the process so he cursed loudly with pain. 

As he tried to regroup and process what just happened his saw a slight movement out of the corner of his eye and his gaze turned back with amazement as he watched her eye lids flicker. Her lashes fluttered twice then opened halfway revealing dark brown eyes. It was just for a second and he almost thought he imagined it because in the next second they were closed as if they had never opened at all. His hand raced back to her neck to feel again for a pulse. Still nothing. How was that possible he thought. 

Rapidly his mind worked through what he next had to do. It was going to fucking hurt but he had no choice. He leaned his good shoulder into her stomach and in that position he noticed for the first time the blood behind her head in the snow. He saw it was also frozen in her hair on the back but it was hard to see how much because her hair was so dark. Blunt force to the head it looked like had taken her down. He had no time to investigate further. He braced his legs and sucked in his breath waiting for the pain in his chest to explode as he lifted up and propelled her over his shoulder. With his broken arm there was no other way he could carry her. He just hoped the damage was limited to her head. The cold should have stemmed any bleeding hours ago. 

He started to walk forward. Slowly stumbling after a few yards then getting back steady on his feet. She wasn’t that heavy and if it wasn’t for his injuries he could have carried her easily. He wasn’t sure were he was going but he plowed forward through the wind and the swirling snow. He needed shelter and he needed it now because in the course of a few minutes everything had changed. Since he laid his eyes on her face, since he felt his heart flip over right in his chest he knew only two things. One that she was alive, but not for long if he could not warm her up. And two. That no matter what happened. No matter who she was or was suppose to have done. No matter how utterly crazy it seemed. Under no circumstances did he ever want to let her go.


End file.
